Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Spring Has Sprung, Just not in Illinois!

Well it's cold today but no snow in sight! Makes things a
little better when you can see plant life. Eskimos must me super depressed all the time because of all the snow. A hope springs coming soon! I want to see leaves on trees and I want warm weather, it's not fun when you have to bike in 15 degrees.

This week, for a lack of better words,was kind of a poopy one. I didn't feel like I was on top of my game. The whole sharing a car with another set of missionaries has thrown our appointments out of whack, but I'm not going to blame it on that. I know I need to learn something and I will learn it so I can utilize the blessings that should be. I liked a quote from a member this week; we were talking about 2 Nephi 2:1-2 and Jacob 3:1, where it talks about how the lord consecrates our afflictions for our gain and how the lord will council with us through them. The member said that "afflictions are like tuition, the faster we learn the less afflictions we have to pay." So, I just need to saddle up and learn some things.But, the good thing is that our recent converts have friends and family who want to get baptized now, so we have a lot of potential investigators and baptisms that are going to be coming from them. Another great miracle is our investigator Tom Carr, met with our bishop, who is a doctor and made a battle plan on how he is going to quit smoking so he can get baptized. I really enjoy battle plans because something I always say is, "No war was won on a whim, you must make a battle plan! The devil has already made his and if you don't make one the devil will always win!" We have really been prioritizing him as a investigator to focus on and now he can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it's giving him hope! I want to share a little from my studies in this epistle. I was studying the book of Jacob and I really enjoyed chapter 3:1-2. It stood out so much to me. Some of the things that stood out to me was how Jacob used the phrase "pure in heart" which is only used in the scriptures about 4 times. Secondly I felt corresponded well with 3 Nephi 12:8 and D&C 97:21 talking about the blessings of those who are pure in heart and what is the Pure it heart. He then teaches us that even the pure in heart go through trials and need to pray. God teaches us to pray and the Devil teaches us not to pray (see 2 Nephi 32:8) I think it so cool that Jacob teaches us about afflictions here. Because in this scripture he is really just speaking out of experience. In 2 Nephi 2:1-2 Lehi tells Jacob that all of his afflictions have been blessed for his gain and in Jacob 2:5 he gives an example of how he is pure in heart, because sin becomes ABOMINABLE to him. He sanctified him self and devoted him self to God as we do that the Lord will council with us through our afflictions. I know that God lives and He loves us. I know that Jesus is our savior and we can over come all our afflictions through him because he suffered that we might be free. I know that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God and will always stand up for him. I thank him everyday because he helped bring this book "The Book of Mormon" to the world and that book as saved my life, physically and spiritually and through that I know that Thomas S. Monson is a Prophet today that will help lead us threw tumultuous times. Elder Herdt